Battlefield Heroes beta shut down, to re-open next year

EA has announced that the closed beta for Battlefield Heroes will be shutting …

EA's casual online shooter Battlefield Heroes has been in closed beta for quite a while, and now the developer has announced that it will be shutting down for retooling. The beta will be closing down at 6PM tonight, so that further development can be done on the game's backend.

"You know the old saying about icebergs being 10 percent above water, and 90 percent below? Heroes is a little like that," senior producer James Salt explained. "There's the 10 percent game part you can see, and the hiding 90 percent is what we call the 'backend'. The backend does a lot of things. From running the website's features and looking after the items you have, to collecting the results from each Heroes game and matchmaking players into games."

Salt then added that the majority of the work that remains to be done is polish, and that the developer plans to get the beta up and running again in early 2009. However, he didn't mention whether or not the next beta phase would still be closed, or would be open to the public this time around. If it were to be open, that would put the game schedule in line with past statements, which called for a late 2008/early 2009 release.

EA is working in mostly uncharted territory in the US with this title, so a cautious, measured strategy is a good idea.

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